Coco Bandicoot

Coco Bandicoot is a character from the Crash Bandicoot series. She is the younger sister of Crash Bandicoot and just like her brother and his girlfriend, she was captured and mutated by Neo Cortex and N. Brio. She is highly intelligent and tech-savvy, helping her brother out armed with her laptop and technological know-how.

Personality

From the moment she is introduced, Coco is established as an "annoying younger sibling" sort of character and uses Crash to perform certain errands whenever she sees fit. Her work ethic can be best described as domineering; most of the time, she only works on what she wants to do and largely ignores what really needs to be done, such as cleaning the house (as displayed in Crash: Mind Over Mutant). Despite this, Coco is generally depicted as responsible, smart, kind-hearted, good-natured and high spirited, her educated wit often contrasted by an innocent demeanor. Despite their contrasting personalities, Coco is far from prissy and is generally tolerant, if not outright amused by Crash's behavior. She also shares his altruistic code, even to some enemies (as Crash had taken sympathy on Krunk in Nitro Kart, Coco felt pity for Nash, using her hack smarts to make the "poor shark thingy" take a much-needed nap).

One of Coco's most prominent traits is her genius-level intellect, possesing an IQ of 164[3], she is great with technology as she carries a pink/turquoise laptop occasionally and is skilled at hacking, as seen in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, when she intercepts Cortex's messages to convince her brother not to listen to him. Below the Bandicoot House lies Coco's VR Hub System, which resides in a secret lab seen in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex. It works similar to the Time Twister in that it can warp to different places around the world, the only difference being that it remains in the present time. She is a fan of martial arts films and masculine sports such as wrestling and NASCAR. In Crash Tag Team Racing, Coco's personality is different: she is more preppy, loud, ditzy, sassy, often makes eccentric poses, and likes beauty and shopping. Coco has an unexplained grudge against Nina Cortex starting from Crash Tag Team Racing, something that ends up requited after she openly competes for superiority above her in Crash of the Titans.

Coco is generally depicted as a lucid foil for Crash, often taking the role of straight man or spokesman whenever Aku Aku isn't around. She is not without her own ditzy moments, however, and is certainly not immune to the same slapstick buffoonery that so often befalls her brother, sometimes even quite wilfully. In general, if there is one personality vice that even Crash controls better than Coco, it is temper. Unlike her big brother, who is generally blasé or oblivious to humiliation and comical abuse, Coco can get easily frustrated, if not outright tantrum prone, when the joke is on her or the undesired results occur. She will frequently sulk or vent anger if she fails to complete her goal. Coco can also be impulsive as a result, when she believes Cortex to have kidnapped Crash in Crash Twinsanityshe recklessly attacks him, ruining their cooperated efforts and electrocuting herself in the process. Some of Coco's less-thought-through inventions also often fabricate through this disposition. Coco sometimes had a penchant for getting easily captured or making vital errors that Crash would (surprisingly) avoid. Some titles such as Tag Team Racing also depict Coco as more arrogant and petulant than Crash due to her greater intellect (something which, along with her rather poor detective skills, gets her labelled as dumb as her peers by an irritated Willie Wumpa Cheeks).

From Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy onwards, Coco was given a lot more silly and cheerful personality that parallels with the goofball aspects of her brother, while also restoring her genius intellect and smarter approach to things from Crash 2 through CTR. Coco will frequently laugh at or even take part in Crash's silliness. This new aspect of her personality was first introduced in the N. Sane Trilogy, where she will laugh at Crash's idle animations, such as when he drops a wumpa fruit on his head or gets tangled up in his yo-yo. This iteration of Coco also tends to act like a goofball on her own, as she will often make silly faces while taking selfies and even has her own take on Crash's dance in her idle animations. These aspects of her personality are further developed in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, where she does silly things during her podium animations such as pretending to get poisoned by a wumpa fruit with her princess skin. In the ending, she even encourages her brother to do the Crash dance with her. This is also the first game where Coco was introduced to have a liking for video games, as she begins a game streaming service company in the epilogue.

Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time expands upon the new elements that were added to Coco's personality while also retaining the smarter and mature aspects of her personality. In addition to being a lot more cheerful and silly, she is more adventurous, outgoing, mischievous, dynamic, and easygoing. Coco also has a more excited, upbeat, and can-do attitude when it comes to joining Crash on his adventures or fighting enemies. She does occasionally get annoyed and grossed out by Crash such as when he jumped into her arms after being frightened by N. Brio and when he picked up the egg that N. Brio laid, but for the most part Crash and her often come to an agreement on things. In the ending, Coco cheerfully plays video games with Tawna and then encourages Crash to join them. Coco's interest in video games is further emphasized when it is revealed that she became an esports champion in the epilogue. While earlier games tended to convey them more as an equal brains and brawn division, recent games imply Coco to be a more stable successor to Crash as a result of being the later of Cortex's bandicoot mutants. In It's About Time, she tends to outclass Crash as much in the physical side of things as the intellectual side, always being nimble and cautious enough to avoid the same pratfalls as her brother. Her On The Run bio states Coco could easily supplant Crash as the world's savior if she wanted to.

Coco also has a habit of taking her laptop, or tablet, anywhere she goes. In Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, Coco always carries it while the player is controlling her. She doesn't appear to be too concerned with it getting damaged however, as she is willing to use it to shield herself from boxes falling on her head and to grind on rails. She treats her phone in a similar manner, as she will throw it in the air as it starts to malfunction in one of her idle animations and she even throws it on the ground and kicks it in one of her podium animations in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled.

Trivia

• Coco is voiced by Debi Derryberry, the voice behind many cartoon characters on TV including Jimmy Neutron and Zatch Bell.
• Coco has her own theme in Cortex Strikes Back which plays during her holograms, although it's not easy to make out as it is masked by her dialogue. The game's composer Josh Mancell has uploaded a pre-console version of the theme onto his SoundCloud.
• Coco uses leetspeak in Crash Nitro Kart for some of her in-race lines. According to Coco's character profile in Crash Bandicoot: On the Run!. She loves tech, NASCAR, reading and Pura and she hates obviously Nina Cortex.
• She was originally meant to be playable in Crash Twinsanity, where she would assist Crash and Cortex. Like in Wrath of Cortex, she would have her own levels.
• Coco's laptop is hot pink in almost all appearances. However, in Crash Nitro Kart's intro and in some promotional artwork, it is same shade of sky blue as her jeans. The laptop returns to being pink during her podium defeat animation.
• In Crash Team Racing, when Coco loses, there is the Naughty Dog Logo on her laptop that can be seen when she comes in second place. When she comes in third place, you can see the Naughty Dog signature paw print on the laptop's screen. The Naughty Dog logo returns to her laptop in both the N. Sane Trilogy and It's About Time. The logo can also be seen on Coco's phone in the N. Sane Trilogy and Nitro-Fueled.
• In some promotional artwork for Crash Nitro Kart her kart has a unique pink paintjob, but she uses a regular blue Team Bandicoot kart in the game itself.
• She's the only character in Crash Nitro Kart to have five fingers.
• In the Japanese epilogue of Crash Bash, it is stated that Coco dreams of becoming an idol singer. When her computer generates a holographic image of her future self as a matured music star, Crash briefly mistakes it for Tawna.
• In Nitro-Fueled, silhouettes of Coco's default victory animation are used as the Nitro Squad's paparazzi for their podium animations.
• According to Charles Zembillas, Coco was concepted as a teenager in the Naughty Dog titles.
• The flashback tape "Overall Fitness Exam" of Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time reveals that Cortex picked out her overalls (which originally belonged to N. Brio) after trying out several outfits for her.
• According to Japanese canon, Coco's birthday is on May 5th. It is because it can be formatted as 5/5, which can be read as "ko-ko" in Japanese, spelling her name.

Voice Actresses

• Japanese : Haruna Ikezawa (Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, Crash Bandicoot Warped, Crash Bash, Crash Team Racing), Ema Kogure (Crash Bandicoot The Warth of Cortex, Crash Nitro Jart, Crash Twinsanity), Satomi Arai (Crash Tag Team Racing),
• English : Vicki Winters (Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back), Hynden Walch (CTR: Crash Team Racing), Anna Garduno (Crash Bash), Debi Derryberry (Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, Crash Nitro Kart, Crash Twinsanity, Crash Tag Team Racing, Crash of the Titans, Crash: Mind Over Mutant, Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled), Eden Riegel (Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time)